Sky Pond crayfish decline
This is a really interesting thread to me because the rapid decline in crayfish is something that has recently caught my attention in both Sky and Jackson Ponds. For those of you unfamiliar with Sky Pond it is a very deep small pond and State Park at the corner of New Hampton, Ashland, and Meredith. It is cold, spring fed, and stocked with brook trout by the F&G. It is a fly fishing only pond and there are no motors allowed. Jackson Pond is fed from Sky Pond and used to be the Ashland Town water supply. Neither pond has much shoreline development and they are very clean.
There is a local bait shop that has multiple traps on Sky Pond and cleans them out everyday. I had attributed the decline to their overfishing, but this thread makes me wonder the real reason. Sounds like a good topic for F&G, the Squam Lakes Association, or maybe a paper writing college grad to explore. There is obviously a lot of interest!
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